This article was originally hosted on The Puppy Files. The website is no longer available, hence I took the liberty to retrieve it from Wayback Machine.
Indeed, the anime is different from the manga. We're going to explore these differences, by telling what we like and dislike about each. Anime Well, the first thing that can be noticed about the anime is they way its drawn and actually animated. Compared to a lot of other series out there, Inuyasha's animation is excellent. And it only gets better as time goes on! And the coloring is so bright and vivid, it brings the images to life, even if the animation isn't so hot that episode. The music in the anime is also superb. Which of course ties into the spiffy opening theme songs. All of them are awesome. Speaking of sound, we also like the voice acting. All the voices are chosen very well, and do an excellent job of portraying their personality. Then there's the actual writing of the anime. Well, it doesn't exactly follow the manga quite right, so there are a lot of filler episodes. This is both a good and bad thing. Some of the filler episodes are really cute, and show new situations for the characters. Now to go into what we don't like about the anime. The biggest thing that bugs us is the fact that they don't really follow the manga. They condense the storylines way too much. In the manga, everything is timed out, and has great suspense. But in the anime, something that took up about 6 issues in the manga takes only one episode. You just can't get the same feel for the characters. Along those lines, we do not like the way Kagome is portrayed in the anime. It irritates us to no end. She always acts helpless, and obsessive over Inuyasha. Everything she ever does is for him. She has no other thoughts enter her head, besides clinging to him, and being upset about Kikyou. And if Inuyasha's not around, she can't do a thing. Well, that's not the true Kagome. I'll contrast this a little later, in the manga section. It just doesn't make sense that she would have instantly fallen in love with Inuyasha, and act crippled if he's not around. Another character they do no justice for is Kikyou. In the anime, she is portrayed as totally evil. Hence, a lot of people hate her. Why? She's really not a bad character, and she has every right to act the way she does. How would YOU act if you were her? Seriously, the anime always shows her as a creepy evil woman who only cares about killing Inuyasha. Well, she's really quite sad, and should get the respect she deserves. Another big thing about the anime is that it doesn't really follow the manga well. The manga came first... the show should follow it. And what's the deal with adding extra characters? No offense to Ayame fans, but I was really miffed when her character was created. Why did they have to show Kouga as such a jerk? He isn't like that! And he isn't like that in the manga. What's the deal with creating characters that could screw up the storyline? And one of the newest ones... the one who fell in love with Sesshoumaru. What, do unpaired pretty boys bug the animators so they have to invent partners for them? I just don't like that. Manga In case you couldn't tell by reading the above, we like the manga much better than the anime. The storylines are excellently timed out, and unfold in typical Rumiko fashion. You can see exactly what motivates the characters to do what they do, and you cant wait to see how they're going to react to the next big obstacle in their way. Every character has fully developed motivations, and are realistic as people. Kikyou's reactions are less severe than they are in the anime, and she acts the way most people would put in her situation. Yes, she's bitter about how she died, and she wants to kill Naraku for it. And yes, she's furious that Inuyasha has replaced her with her reincarnation. So her actions are totally believable in the manga. Same goes for Kagome! Unlike the anime, she never went through fits of "do I love him or not?" when it came to Inuyasha. Nah, she knew right away she was getting a crush on the boy, but she never lost sight of herself. Inuyasha was never her whole life, and you can see that. Kagome is a tough girl, and does what it takes to get the job done. She attacks Naraku because she wants to take him down, NOT ONLY to protect Inuyasha. She's not all that upset with the whole Kikyou thing. Like anyone, YES, it bugs her to no end. But like any normal person, she gets over it. Life goes on, you know? And Kagome isn't the type to mope around forever because something didn't go the way she wanted in her love life. She's a very respectable girl, and she's very strong. She doesn't always need to be protected because she can hold her own. Overall, the manga is written vastly better than the anime, and the characters are much better developed. But there are a few things we don't like about the manga, although they are minor. The drawing style didn't start so well, but it's improved greatly. A thing that bugs us sometimes is the fact that the manga can get a little too dark. Its one thing to have dramatic and everything, but it goes a little overboard sometimes. The other thing is transitions. You'll be on a really gripping storyline with one character, and then all of a sudden you're with a totally different one. That's pretty annoying sometimes, since you want to know what happens with the first character. Otherwise, there isn't much we don't like about the manga.